Ulrich Moser

The Regulation of Cognitive-Affective Processes: A New Psychoanalytic Model

Classical psychoanalysis, beginning with the central concept of neurotic conflict (defined as an internalized conflict), has developed models with a multitude of “inner„ variables and relations. Thus, for example, the structural theory of psychoanalysis (id organization, ego organization, super-ego and self-ideal organization) developed an “early„ regulatory theory without the resources of systems theory, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence.

Experiences with computer simulation of dream processes

In this paper we report on the experiences of our research group in setting up a model of the cognitive-affective processes of the sleep dream (Moser et al., 1980). We have been engaged for several years with attempts to reconceptualize certain areas of psychoanalytic theory. The models constructed in the course of this research are in the form of computer simulation models. A first model depicted the defence processes in intrapsychic conflicts (Moser et al., 1969,1970).

The Application of the Simulation Model of Neurotic Defence Mechanisms to the Psychoanalytic Theory of Psychosomatic Illness

During the last few years a computer simulation model has been developed by Moser, von Zeppelin & Schneider (1968, 1969,1970a, b) which seeks to formalize the psychoanalytic theory of the defence organization by means of computer languages. Formalization of a theory means that all concepts are broken down and systematically defined, i.e. variables of a system are motivation variables and/or observation variables or can be specified as relations between variables in this system. Simulation makes it possible, by varying the parameter values of the model, to generate on the machine individual variants of defence processes in neurotic conflicts. The model was designed with the aim of defining, by means of a differentiation of the defence process, neurotic states which appear in the simulation as equilibration states of the system or as only very slowly changing states of the system. Especial attention was devoted to the stages between neurosis and psychosis. It was not our intention to simulate psychosomatic states, but the model must be capable of differentiating such states from other patterns of neurosis or psychosis. In order to treat this question in detail, the basic features of the model have to be set forth. The technical aspects are excluded from this discussion. They are exhaustively dealt with elsewhere (Moser et al., 1968,1970a, b).

Computer Simulation of a Model of Neurotic Defence Processes (Technical Part of the Project)

Since the publication of Anna Freud’s “The Ego and Defence Mechanisms„ (1936) no other comprehensive psychoanalytic defence theory has been published. The various attempts to describe defence processes as they are studied in a psychoanalytic situation by means of metapsychological concepts are not satisfactory. This may be due to a general difficulty in developing a satisfactory theory in psychoanalysis: generally, metapsychology does not permit adequate and comprehensive deductions concerning psychoanalytic technique. In a first stage of constructing a theory the phenomena observed in psychoanalysis are worked into “clinical„ concepts (Waelder, 1960). These concepts, in their turn, are comprehended in a “theory of technique„ in a “metapsychology„ (such as the structure theory). In this preliminary stage of theory construction concepts are linked with language. This is often the source of serious misunderstandings as soon as psychodynamic constellations are to be formalized.

Theorizing With and on Affect and Fantasy: Possibilities in Practice, Empirical Research and Computer Simulation

Practicing psychoanalysts are often skeptical of scientific methods for evaluating therapeutic data. The greater the abstraction of the theories and the more mathematical the models, the higher the degree of skepticism. The impression predominates that the relational reality of the therapeutic situation is lost and that a theoretical model cannot readily be referred back to one’s own experience.

Do we Dream Affects? Affective Relatedness in the Dream Process

In the psychoanalytic literature one notices a shying away from dealing with the manifest part of the dream process, that is, the verbal dream report. This may be due to Freud’s (1925) viewing the interpretation of the manifest dream as “nonscientific virtuosity of a very dubious character.“